Monday, November 26, 2018

The Week That Was!

The Thanksgiving Holiday week is always the best time of the year. Everyone is happy. Food is plentiful. We'd worry about not overeating a little later or early next year. There is a lot of TV watching obviously.



TV
The Clinton Affair on A&E

Lived through this in the 90s but could not resist watching it. With hindsight of time and not being as much of a Clinton fan I could watch the documentary with objectivity. All the men come off as a**** for sure. They have rehabilitated themselves as elder statesman or in the case of people like Gingrich and Ken Starr still smug in their righteousness. What a terrible thing to put the country through for ideology and personal reasons alone. The only person I truly felt sorry for and felt the need to apologize profusely is Monica Lewinsky who paid a heavy price. The other women - remember Linda Tripp?, Lucienne Goldberg come across even worse than the men. It is an ugly episode in this country's history and hopefully the documentary will be watched and lessons learned (or not). The sad thing is Clinton's peccadilloes made it possible for a man who is far worse to be the President today. How low the GOP has traveled!

Online
I am on a quest to make food for Zuko, the dog at home and wean him off kibbles. When he was sick at one point the doctor suggested, chicken and rice and it was enjoyed by Zuko far more than anything else and it has been on my mind ever since. I just needed to make a balanced diet and know what vegetables, meat combination I should be using. This website came in very handy. Rice in a mixture of beans, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, pumpkins along with chicken, turkey Zuko has been enjoying it so far.


Love to hate WhatsApp? It has certainly kept me in touch with family and friends but the I am simply unlove the forwards that come across. But not everything on WhatsApp is bad. Read this story.


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Economics is boring but not when it is written in an engaging and fun way. I am enjoying Misbehaving.


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Thursday, November 22, 2018

Poosanikai Halwa - Pumpkin Halwa - In an Instant Pot - Farm to Plate


Happy Thanksgiving!!


The frost hit earlier than expected this year or it seems that way because I had a field full of pumpkin plants looking green and luscious. Was expecting a regular supply of pumpkins to keep me and my CSA crew going through Fall but the frost made sure that the pumpkin plants died before that. The end result there were a bunch of young pumpkins and unlike mature pumpkins the young pumpkins have to be used pretty quickly because they will rot. So the decision to make pumpkin halwa was made. It was also Deepavali so it all worked out.





Though I made this halwa with young pumpkins, using mature pumpkin is more than fine and you will be happy with the vibrant colorful looking pumpkin halwa.



I used milk to cook the pumpkin but you should be fine if you prefer to not squeeze the water and just cook the pumpkin and use only a tiny bit of milk. Using milk gives a richer halwa. I used the Instant Pot for part of the process and used the Normal setting instead of Low when in saute mode. So if you are using Instant Pot do not use the Normal setting, Low is perfect for the halwa to be cooked under. In Normal mode you have to be very careful not to let it burn.

Peel the pumpkin and remove the seeds from the inside. Grate the pumpkin and set aside.
Squeeze some of the excess water out. In a pan heat some ghee and saute he grated pumpkin. (This step can be done in the InstantPot also).
Add milk to the sauteed pumpkin and transfer the contents to an Instant Pot.
Put the Instant Pot in saute mode on Less, cook the pumpkin in the milk for about 20-30 minutes.
Add in the sugar and continue to saute till all the milk gets absorbed.
Add in the ghee and saute till the desired consistency is reached. Finally finish with the roasted nuts.





Pumpkin Halwa
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 - 50 minutes
Ingredients
  1. 5 Cups of grated pumpkin
  2. 2 1/2 cups of sugar
  3. 1 1/4 cups of milk (I used 2 cups of milk which was a bit much)
  4. 2 tsp of cardamom powder
  5. 1/4 - 1/2 cup of ghee
  6. 1/4 cup of cashews and 1 tbsp of Chironji

Method
  1. Peel the pumpkin, remove the seeds and the stringy parts from inside and grate using a box grater or in a food processor. Squeeze if you want to remove the excess moisture and set aside.
  2. The following steps can be done in the Instant pot in the Saute mode but put in the 'Less' setting. I used a pot and did the sauteing and then transferred to the Instant Pot.
  3. Heat 2 tsp of ghee and add the grated pumpkin and saute for 4-5 minutes.
  4. Add in the milk and cook for 20 minutes or so. In the Instant Pot which is in saute mode and in the Less setting continue to stir from time to time. Add in the cardamom powder.
  5. Continue to stir till most of the milk is absorbed and the halwa starts to thicken.
  6. Start to add ghee at this point. Stir till the halwa starts to glisten.
  7. In a sauce pan heat a bit of ghee and saute the cashews and the Chironji nuts and set aside.
  8. Finally add in the roasted nuts and mix it in.
    9. Stays fresh for 3-4 days and refrigerated for 2-3 weeks.

Note:
  1. Keep the Instant Pot in Less mode when the saute option is selected.
  2. The saute option allows you to choose between Normal, More and Less.
  3. For this Halwa, keeping it in Normal is also a higher temperature than what is required. If you do decide to keep in Normal you have stir more often and watch closely.


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